Chef behind Barilla Pasta is blatantly homophobic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I buy according to the quality of the product, not according to the political views of the guy who owns the company. I am sure I have had food cooked or prepared by racists, homophobes, madmen and women of various stripes, libertarians, Catholics, Buddists, misogynists..who cares? If their dedication to the product is right then I will buy.

If they are doing something blatantly unethical like employing child labor that would be one thing, but you cannot choose your brand of prepared pasta on the basis of the CEO's views on gay adoption. It is just ridiculous.

This. Seriously, this. This shit is getting old.

I think I'll fix me some Chick fil-A over Barillas tonight.

Now THAT was funny!!

I am so tired of people telling me I should boycott products. I have way more important things to worry about than the opinions of a wealthy person....so if they make a good product at a fair price and no one is hurt during the process - then yes, I'm buying and not thinking twice. Unless its something that Obama tells me to buy of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So when was the last time prego did a gay family commercial? I don't think I have seen any gay family commericals for any other company in any industry as of today.

Exactly. Most companies feel the same way, he was just dumb enough to say it

Well, I mean, having a gay family would be a really poor marketing strategy. I mean, something like 2%, maybe 3% of the population is gay, fewer of them are partnered and even fewer of those partnered have children. It's kind of asinine to depict a gay family on TV since it isn't really relatable to potential customers.

And what percentage of the American or human population has a friend or family member that's gay? A coworker, employee, or boss? I'd bet 90-100% of the population. The demographics of who is depicted in media or advertising has little to do with that particular demographic - and more to do with how much it looks like the people in my life, which include a lot of people that don't look like me, or share my sexual orientation (I'm straight, btw), or gender, or race (I'm biracial). I don't just care about the biracial, straight atheists with hazel eyes - I want to see a world that looks like the people I surround myself with, too.

[Anonymous]

approx 10% of the population is gay/bisexual, not 3%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love their vegetable infused pastas.

Well, I think the texture is not as good as regular pasta, of course, but it's way better than whole wheat pasta. And for those who will boycott Barilla, I haven't really found anything comparable to their Barilla Plus pasta. So I'll still get that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's unabashed about it. He's right, everyone has the right to make their own choices - but I definitely will never purchase their products ever again.

http://www.towleroad.com/2013/09/barilla-pasta-chief-we-dont-like-gays-they-can-eat-another-brand.html

Who gives a shit? It's exhausting being told what products I'm supposed to avoid to be politically correct. Hating gays doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the pasta.

+1

I'll continue to eat my delicious Chik-Fil-A if I'm out and about and have to get some kind of fast food.
I'll continue to buy Barilla as it's the best dried pasta on the market that I can get on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:approx 10% of the population is gay/bisexual, not 3%

I think the 10% figure came from Kinsey Report, which has been completely debunked due to problems with its sample.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:approx 10% of the population is gay/bisexual, not 3%

No, it's not. It's defintiely closer to 3%.

The 10% is a 70-year old estimate from Kinsey. Subsequent studies, including those by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force find the number between 3% and 8%.

More recently, a study concluded it was 4%:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/williams-institute-report-reveals-million-gay-bisexual-transgender/story?id=13320565

It should be perfectly obvious on its face that 10% of the population isn't gay. I mean, come on.

[Anonymous]

I am waiting for the gay spaghetti os commercial.

So good you'll Ask both your dads to buy it.

Or how about a gay tapax commercial "gay double pack when you are both in sync"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think what he said was that bad though. He's entitled to his feelings

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I buy according to the quality of the product, not according to the political views of the guy who owns the company. I am sure I have had food cooked or prepared by racists, homophobes, madmen and women of various stripes, libertarians, Catholics, Buddists, misogynists..who cares? If their dedication to the product is right then I will buy.

If they are doing something blatantly unethical like employing child labor that would be one thing, but you cannot choose your brand of prepared pasta on the basis of the CEO's views on gay adoption. It is just ridiculous.

If you buy according to the quality of the product, then you wouldn't buy Barilla, because their product is pretty darn crappy for dried pasta. So yay, win/win?

I understand people who want to buy what they want, when they want it, with a clear conscience. But I just can't do that. Those companies have profits, and they do shitty things and donate to shitty "causes" with those profits, that I would otherwise be helping to generate. You're free to buy what you want, but I can't in good faith, knowingly give money to a brand that I know goes what I believe in.

Well, as a matter of fact, I don't buy Barilla.

And as for whether homophobia is an opinion, the guy didn't say "everyone should go out and beat up gay people", he said that Barilla would not advertize using a gay family, and that he did not approve of gay adoption. The former is a legitimate business choice, and while I disagree with the latter, it is within the grounds of legitimate political debate. Probably half the people in Italy don't approve of gay adoption. If you went there on holiday, would you go to each kitchen and make sure that the chef approved of gay adoption before you ordered your tortellini in brodo? Don't you understand how many ingredients you have eaten that have been grown, prepared, or cooked by people whose views you would disagree with on many issues?

And as for whether homophobia is an opinion, the guy didn't say "everyone should go out and beat up BLACK people", he said that Barilla would not advertize using a BLACK family, and that he did not approve of INTERRACIAL adoption. The former is a legitimate business choice, and while I disagree with the latter, it is within the grounds of legitimate political debate. Probably half the people in Italy don't approve of INTERRACIAL adoption. If you went there on holiday, would you go to each kitchen and make sure that the chef approved of INTERRACIAL adoption before you ordered your tortellini in brodo? Don't you understand how many ingredients you have eaten that have been grown, prepared, or cooked by people whose views you would disagree with on many issues?

30 years ago, people said the same thing. When will be learn?

Stop comparing homosexuality with black people. It's insulting.

[Anonymous]

Stop saying black people are the only people deserving of civil rights and equal treatment. That's insulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

When CEOs are dumb enough to let fly with their bigoted opinions and become the 5% of businesses where I do know their views, I will change, and have changed, my consumption patterns.

See also:
Chick-fil-A
Whole Foods
Papa John's
Domino's

Ha. Your list is my list. Too funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the way I see it, there are maybe 30 poeple posting on here who are going to byocott Barilla pasta. This isn't going to get picke dup and become front page news anywhere.

That will make a huge impact, huge (imagine julia roberts in pretty women)

The Barilla/homophobia story is actually front page on Yahoo and other major web pages/news sites, Gawker, Reddit, etc.

Google news results bow available for: LA Times, Guardian, ABC News, BBC, CNN, TIME, USA Today, among others. Yeah, this is news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I buy according to the quality of the product, not according to the political views of the guy who owns the company. I am sure I have had food cooked or prepared by racists, homophobes, madmen and women of various stripes, libertarians, Catholics, Buddists, misogynists..who cares? If their dedication to the product is right then I will buy.

If they are doing something blatantly unethical like employing child labor that would be one thing, but you cannot choose your brand of prepared pasta on the basis of the CEO's views on gay adoption. It is just ridiculous.

If you buy according to the quality of the product, then you wouldn't buy Barilla, because their product is pretty darn crappy for dried pasta. So yay, win/win?

I understand people who want to buy what they want, when they want it, with a clear conscience. But I just can't do that. Those companies have profits, and they do shitty things and donate to shitty "causes" with those profits, that I would otherwise be helping to generate. You're free to buy what you want, but I can't in good faith, knowingly give money to a brand that I know goes what I believe in.

Well, as a matter of fact, I don't buy Barilla.

And as for whether homophobia is an opinion, the guy didn't say "everyone should go out and beat up gay people", he said that Barilla would not advertize using a gay family, and that he did not approve of gay adoption. The former is a legitimate business choice, and while I disagree with the latter, it is within the grounds of legitimate political debate. Probably half the people in Italy don't approve of gay adoption. If you went there on holiday, would you go to each kitchen and make sure that the chef approved of gay adoption before you ordered your tortellini in brodo? Don't you understand how many ingredients you have eaten that have been grown, prepared, or cooked by people whose views you would disagree with on many issues?

And as for whether homophobia is an opinion, the guy didn't say "everyone should go out and beat up BLACK people", he said that Barilla would not advertize using a BLACK family, and that he did not approve of INTERRACIAL adoption. The former is a legitimate business choice, and while I disagree with the latter, it is within the grounds of legitimate political debate. Probably half the people in Italy don't approve of INTERRACIAL adoption. If you went there on holiday, would you go to each kitchen and make sure that the chef approved of INTERRACIAL adoption before you ordered your tortellini in brodo? Don't you understand how many ingredients you have eaten that have been grown, prepared, or cooked by people whose views you would disagree with on many issues?

30 years ago, people said the same thing. When will be learn?

Stop comparing homosexuality with black people. It's insulting.

Why is it insulting? Gay rights are human rights as are rights for people of color and women.

[Anonymous]

Via the Human Rights Campaign: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/five-pasta-brands-that-support-lgbt-equality